The Walking Dead: Fear The Living
by ZombieDinosaur
Summary: Set after Season 1. This alternate universe fanfic. After the ordeal in Atlanta, Rick's group head for Fort Benning. Along the way they will meet a small band of survivors and find a new safe haven on a farm. But how safe can this new shelter be when they learn about a monster much more terrifying than the dead.
1. Issue 1

The Walking Dead: Fear the Living

The lone walker stumbled through the woods over a branch. It's bald, grey head glimmered in the sunlight. Patches of skin and flesh were torn around its face and body. It's clothes like rags hug around the walking corpse. Its eyes blankly stared ahead. A twig snapping made the slow creature turn its ugly head.

With lightning speed, the walker's head rolled across the ground as a strange figure, dressed in a tan fabric cloak, stood behind the creature. Holding a flesh covered katana. The figure shook the fluids and pieces from the sword before whistling into the trees. Three figures appeared behind her. Two men and a young child appeared from the brush.

"Is the cost clear?" asked the first man with a clear distinction in his voice. A distinction that tells the others he is the leader.

"I didn't whistle to the birds," said the figure as she removed her hood. She was an African American woman in her late thirties. Her braided hair and bandanna showed light in the dark and cold figure. She was thin and fit. That's the way she got by in this world. That's how she won.

"I didn't ask for your sarcasm. Did I, Michonne?" asked the man. The figure looked at him.

"It's clear. Walkers moved on days ago. This one's a straggler," said Michonne. The other man looked at the body of corpse that now lay on the ground. His only good, right arm poked the corpses stomach.

"It hasn't eaten in days. Usually they're more bloated," said the one armed man.

"Nothing we haven't seen before, Jeremy. This place must be short on game. But I saw some fields a while back. There might be farmlands around here," said Matt.

"And if they're aren't?" asked Michonne.

"Then we get in the trucks and move on," said Matt.

"Why waste our time now? We've got enough food for another few days," said Jeremy.

"We have enough for today and tomorrow...and that's already if we start rationing what we have left. We need food," said Matt. The boy looked up at his one armed father.

"Dad?" asked the young boy.

"Yes, Henry?" asked Jeremy.

"It's trying to talk still," said Henry pointing to the decapitated corpse's head. Jeremy began to walk over to it when a sword struck the upper cranium of the still snapping head. The jaws froze and it became still.

"It's not talking now," said Michonne in a voice a little above a whisper. Her tone as dark and cold as she was. "Come on...let's check out those plains."

…

Alex drove down the highway a little further ahead and just last a couple walkers when his truck made a loud noise and steam started flowing out.

"Shit!" he exclaimed. He pulled over to a stop on the side of the road and got out. He looked down his rifle scoop seeing the walkers were a fair distance away but getting closer. He opened the hood seeing his radiator was acting up again.

_Can't waste the water,_ he thought, unzipping his jeans and looked around for walkers cause the last thing he wanted to lose is 'that'. Not more than a few minutes later the truck roared to life and he drove away just as the walkers reached the truck.

…

Matt heard it first. Michonne eyed him nervously.

"Someone's on the road," said Michonne.

"We best wait for them to move on," said Matt.

"And if they're doing the same thing we are?" asked Jeremy.

"We shoot and ask questions later," said Matt. Jeremy looked at Henry.

"He doesn't need to see that," said Jeremy.

"Wake up...this is the world we live in now. You want to keep pretending things will go back to normal? Fine. But we're not doing that shit," said Matt. Jeremy looked at his brother coldly.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Jeremy. Matt nodded. "Michonne, you mind watching Henry?"

"Not at all," said the woman. The two men began walking away from the other two. Jeremy turned and faced Matt.

"Now...listen to me. I know Sarah was with us a week ago and you lost her but-"

"I didn't loose her. That fucker stole her from me," said Matt.

"I get that. But that's no reason to be all up in people's shit. You gotta move on. People die everyday. Now more than ever. You need to come back to us. You've become cold. You're cutting yourself off from the only three people you know. Is that wise? What happens when and if the rest of us go? What are you going to do then? You can't keep doing this, sport. It only ends badly. I think we need these other people. Give them a chance. Most likely, we'll outnumber them four to one," said Jeremy. Matt nodded.

"You want to go ahead and see who's on the road? Fine. But not me. I'm not going to go back to that again," said Matt.

"Back to what? Trying to rebuild society? Look around, Matt! We need people! How far can a washed up police officer, a samurai sword welding woman, a one armed man, and a ten year old really get in this world? You want to survive in this world, right? Well then it's time to go back into the world," said Jeremy. With that, he rejoined his son. Leaving Matt alone with his thoughts.

Jeremy returned to Michonne.

"No need to worry. Whatever was on the road is gone," she said. Jeremy walked past her. He turned.

"Doesn't mean that's the last person we'll see or the last time we might see them," said Jeremy. Michonne sheathed her sword and sighed.

"What about these plains? One of them has to have food on them. There could be a farm around here," said Michonne.

"We'll see what Matt wants to do. He needs some alone time for right now. He has to work things through," said Jeremy. He began removing the bandages from his stub of an arm. _Good thing it was the left one_, Jeremy thought to himself. He was right handed. He rarely used his left hand for anything. The stub of what was left of his arm went from the shoulder to his elbow. His entire forearm and hand were gone. He had Sarah to thank for saving his life. He wish he could've done the same. "I never did thank you for what you did with my arm."

"It was nothing. You have a son to look after. He doesn't need a dead father. And his uncle isn't on a level head either," said Michonne. "He needs you."

"He needs a group. We need more people," said Jeremy.

"More people just create more problems. We barely have enough food for ourselves. We start inviting strangers in we're just hangin' ourselves with the rope we tie," said Michonne.

"So you don't want other people around?" asked Jeremy.

"Not yet. Not here," said Michonne. Jeremy sighed. Henry ran over and embraced his father.

"So where are we going to go then?" asked Jeremy. "I don't know about you...but I don't want to cram into the truck again tonight."

"We might not have a choice. Let's wait for your brother to get back," said Michonne walking away from the two.

….

Further down the road, a single foot climbed out of the crashed Honda Civic. The body of a once deceased middle aged woman climbed out of the wreckage. Her dark black hair and ragged dress gave some color to the gray skinned creature. A low growl escaped from the corpse's throat as it continued limping along. It turned its head to see many more walking dead moving down the road. Hundreds of corpses began moving in one single direction. All of them limping along. All of them making their way down the road. The woman's corpse joined the group.

They were heading down the road to where Matt's group resided. And Matt didn't even know what was coming.

**This is only the first part of the epic new story. I am excited to say that this is based on an incredible forum with so many talented people working on it. We are a small group and we already wowed ourselves with over 500 posts in less than a week. I hope you enjoy the story. **


	2. Issue 2

Issue 2

The car barreled down the road in the late afternoon sun. It was a dirt road off the interstate. The dust kicked up into a trail of smoke behind the car. This road was much clearer than the interstate. Mostly because it wasn't a road, it was a hiking trail than was about a mile or so off the interstate but in ran in the general direction.

Michael Payne sat in the driver's seat. His short black hair whipped wildly around his head from the air coming through the open car window. Another male sat next to him in the passenger's seat. Michael sighed as he glanced over at the fifteen year old blonde haired boy. He thought about the past two months.

Michael grew up in Atlanta with a good family but had a falling out with his father about joining the army so he ran away at eighteen. There's some suspicion his grandfather may have known where he was as his grandfather was the only one who ever had anything positive to say about his aspirations. Michael enlisted to serve in the United States marines and was trained to be a sniper getting the nickname Hawk Eye from his comrades. Sometime during one of his tours an incident occurred and a lot of his company was killed. Michael was honorably discharged and spent the next six months working at a garage in a small town not far from Atlanta. Michael worked on the police cars that would need maintenance and one time Officer Rick Grimes was passing on through and took an interest in Michael suggesting that he should maybe look into law enforcement. Michael considered this seeing as he did have experience and was trained to enforce rules and regulations and he had gotten to like this small town vibe.

About a week later Rick was shot. That was the day he went down to the station and filled out an application for the force. Then a little while after the dead started coming back to life and soon anyone with military or police training was deputized to keep order as the infected continued to grow. Michal got his pick of a weapon and chose a Heckler & Koch PSG1 and was given plenty of ammo. Along the way he picked up a Beretta M9. The military blockade failed to contain the situation and that's when the shit hit the fan when the soldiers were instructed to kill anyone who had come in contact with the infected even those were not bitten or scratched. After that Michael got the hell out of town after making sure he could get everyone who was able to into vehicles and leave. He stopped off at the auto shop to get his bags when his former boss now a walker attacked him. He left his rifle in the truck and his gun was knocked off his belt. So he pushed his boss under one of the lifts and dropped a car that was suspended in the air on top of him. Surprising he was still alive so Michael grabbed the metal baseball bat by the register and finished the job. Michael set off for Atlanta in his tow truck deciding to go home but before that he stops off at his grandfathers. When he got there he saw the dead nurse and his grandfather had been put down.

Michael stopped and looked at the young nurse's dead corpse for a long time then undid the seat belt and pulled her out. He searched his grandfather's pocket and found an old style silver pocket watch. He took the watch with him knowing that's what his grandfather literally told him to do if he ever dropped dead. He buried his grandfather and the nurse under an old oak tree he would climb in as a child. He noticed a set of tires and they matched his father's old truck. He sighed thinking he knew it was really his brother who found and put these walkers down seeing as from what he could tell the human tracks leading up to the tire tracks had a slight limp in them. Michael got back in his truck after siphoning what gas remained in the nurse's car and took what food had been left behind heading back off for Atlanta just missing a walker herd. Michael drove back into the civilian housing outside Atlanta and pulled up to his home parking in the drive way. The door was open and there was blood not a good sign. Michael walked inside rifle first and cleared the first floor. There was even more blood inside from what he could tell from all the blood and dirt as well as bullet casing a group of walkers busted into the home and his father presumably must have opened fire and met some of his targets seeing as there were dead walkers on the carpet. He heard the sound of dead upstairs and pulled out his bat. He took out one at the top of the stairs and got the one at the end of the halls attention by whistling. With two walkers dead he checked his parents' bedroom. There was blood on the bed someone had been bitten and laid down on it. Mostly his mother seeing as she slept on the right side of the bed. A walker tried to sneak up on him from behind but he saw its reflection in the mirror on the wardrobe and knocked its head off literally.

Michael cleared the rest of the second floor. He stepped into his brothers room smiling as he found a picture on the dresser of the whole family about a month before he split. He grabbed a few of his siblings' things and packed some clothes in separate bags expecting them to be alive. He decided to check the basement and tried the door finding it locked. He pushed harder and then leaned up against it listening. He uttered one word ' hello' and his answer came from a shotgun shot that nearly hit his head but was a little higher. He heard someone screaming to go away and his realized it was his brother. He convinced his brother that he was alive and he walked up stairs and opened the door. Michael embraced him in a hug and told him to grab what he needed they were getting out. He walked down stairs and saw his father's head shot off. He had been bitten as well. He grabbed all the shells from the gun and some flash lights and the old tent as well other camping gear. After getting everything loaded up down the street he saw his mother approaching at the head of a herd. He told his brother to look away as he grabbed his rifle and pulled the trigger ending her then got in the truck driving away out of Atlanta.

Michael decided that he would never go back to Atlanta. He was brought back to the present as the car ran over a dead corpse of a man on the road. The sudden bump jolted him back. The boy also jumped up to.

"Don't worry. It was dead," said Michael. His brother turned to him.

"Aren't they already dead?" the boy asked.

"Yeah. But this one was dead dead, Jacky," said Michael. Jacky looked down and then looked out the window.

"I'm hungry, Mike," said Jacky. Michael didn't take his eyes off the road. He pointed to the back.

"There's still some graham crackers and Nutter Butters in the back. There's some water back there too if you get thirsty," Michael answered. Jacky reached back and grabbed three packs of Nutter Butters and the box of graham crackers. He also grabbed two bottles of water.

"Hey. You need to ration, pal. We've gotta make all this last a few days," said Michael. Jacky threw the two packs back and he pulled out five graham crackers from the box before throwing the rest in the back too. Michael pulled the car over to the side of the trail. He parked the vehicle and rolled up the window.

"What's going on?" asked Jacky. Michael sighed.

"I'm hungry too, you little prick," Michael smiled. Jacky grabbed a pack of Nutter Butters from the back and handed Michael one of the waters. "Thanks."

"No problem," said Jacky. Michael pulled out one of the treats and shoved it in his mouth. He finished the packet before gulping it down with the water. There was silence as the two ate. Jacky was the first to break the silence.

"Did anyone else make it?" Jacky asked.

"From our camp?" Michael asked.

'From Atlanta. Mom, Dad, Gramps…anyone?" he asked.

"No one I know of. Mom and Dad…they didn't…" said Michael. He pulled out his grandfather's pocket watch.

"Gramps too?" Jacky asked.

"Gramps too," said Michael. Jacky turned back to his food.

"Shit," Michael said. "We're running on fumes. We need to get back to the interstate. Maybe we can flag someone down."

"What if those things are there?" asked Jacky.

"The zombies? You have your shotgun…I have a bat and a hell lot more guns than you. We should be ok," said Michael. He started the car and they began to move slowly forward.

…

Alex drove off to the side of the road looking down at his map trying to find out just where the hell he was. Alex got off the highway pulling into the abandoned town. he stopped off at the gas station checking the tanks and drained what was left into his truck. Alex heard a wrestling and pulled out his pistol spotting a couple walkers down the street. It wasn't worth the loud noise so he decided to sneak up behind them. He moved behind the gas station crossing behind behinds and came up behind the walkers.

He grabbed the one in the back by the neck and drove his knife into its brain then let it drop. The other one was a challenge, it charged at him and he walked him with the butt of his rifle sending him to the ground and stabbed him with his knife. "Thanks for the warm welcome" Alex laughed dragging them off to the side of the road checking their pickets finding some ammo for his pistol in one of them " Too bad you dropped your gun buddy" He patted his chest

Alex walked into the gas station searching the shelves. He was sad that all the guns had been taken but it looked like there was plenty of ammo on the floor that had been knocked over. He grabbed what he could and found a couple bottles of water, some canned food and batteries. As he rustled through the shelves looking for more supplies he heard the moans of the dead. One of them had wandered into the store.

Alex pulled out his knife and waited behind one of the shelves. IT walked down the ally next to Alex and he turned his head smelling Alex. Alex pushed the shelf over knocking it down on the walker trapping him. Alex drove his skull into the walkers head

Alex sighed walking out the gas station with all the resources he could find. looking down the road he saw that there were walkers approaching. Alex sighed climbing back into the truck and gunned the engine getting out of town.

…

Rick Grimes drove the car silently. Lori sat in the passenger seat. Carl, Carol, and Sophia sat in the back of the Hyundai. He sighed as he looked ahead at the large Winnebago in front of them. He glanced in the rear view mirror, past the three sleeping heads to the motorcycle behind them. Daryl on his hot rod in tow. He looked ahead at the RV, when an arm signaled to Rick from the driver's seat. He soon knew why. Steam erupted from the RV. Rick sighed and signaled Daryl to stop. Rick pressed the brakes giving everyone a slight jolt in the car. As the car jolted, Lori's hand gripped the arm rest below the window with her long fingers. A slightly worried expression was painted across her face as she looked from the Winnebago in front of them before turning her head slightly to look at her husband. These days, the Winnebago was becoming more of a trouble than an asset. It needed constant repairs and was becoming a hassle, but it was their only shelter while on the road. Lori slowly unbuckled her seat belt that she had done up out of force of habit, her eyes still on Rick to see if he would stay put or if she was going to follow him up the RV to check things out.

Carol looked up at Lori. A look of worry on her face.

"Why are we stopping?" she asked. Rick parked the car.

"RV's overheated. Again. Everyone just sit tight. We'll be back on the road in no time," said Rick. He opened the door and got out to meet Glenn.

...

An old man in a white fishing hat opened the hood of the RV. He took his hat off and began fanning the RV with it.

"I told ya that radiator hose wouldn't hold. Didn't I tell ya?" asked Dale. Shane stood next to the old man. Andrea to his right and T-Dog to her left. "We can't keep going like this."

"What do you suggest?" asked Shane.

"Same thing as always. Find a new campsite. Give the RV a break. She's not meant for all this travelling in one sitting," said Dale.

"And risk what happened back in Atlanta?" asked T-Dog.

"T-Dog's right. We don't know the area," said Shane.

"Then let's scout out the area," said Dale. Shane nodded.

"Let me talk to Rick and the others and let's see what they want to do," he stated.

Daryl pulled his motorcycle over to the side of the road. Glenn got out of the RV "Piece of junk." He said walking over towards Rick. "This RV is getting to be a problem." Glenn said to Rick.

Daryl was walking along the edge of the treeline with his crossbow up. He was just giving them time to figure out their next move.


End file.
